A culture that’s as hostile to critical thinking as comics– well, how much can we expect of it? When Tucker was like, “Hey would you like to do a guest thing”– I didn’t think there’d be enough stuff to write about, and instead, there were TWO VERY FULL YEARS of people putting egg on their face. I couldn’t even get to everything– there was too much stuff! A culture that isn’t self-critical is going to have stuff coming out of its ears. There was this blog entry by some d-list comic creator that got spread around late last year, like a “What I’ve Learned” and #2 was “never say anything negative.” Or wait– he even prefaced it with, “I don’t think it makes me a phony but I think it’s important to never say anything negative.” Which– it absolutely makes them a phony! Telling people “only present a face to the world that makes people like you more” makes you a phony! That is the fucking textbook definition of being a phony. And this was one of those things that got spread around as “good advice for aspiring pros” or whatever. When Before Watchmen got announced, I once watched comic creators stifle dissent in the ranks on Twitter in real time– but one guy was like, “That doesn’t sound–” and it was a pile-on from all these other mainstream creators with their little “don’t be a hater” logic. All the tweets got deleted within 15 minutes. Like it never happened, all to tweet heaven. You could see it happen with that sex harassment thing– as soon as it turned out to be a Marvel creator, I think a lot of people got silent fast with their little “let’s all be better people” talk. The Ghost Rider guy, when all that happened– you could hear a pin drop on some parts of the internet…
Abhay Khosla talks to Tim O’Neill, and it’s a must-read. Like, really, it’s a must-read.
(Actually, Tim’s piece about blogging for ten years is a must-read, too. I almost linked to it when it appeared, and then demurred because it mentioned me and I felt embarrassed. True story: I am weird that way.)